As this goes to press, legislation currently in conference between the House and Senate aims to consolidate between 90 and 100 existing job training and education programs into block grants. This legislation also reduces funding by 15 percent to 20 percent. As with other block grant proposals, the workforce development legislation provides more flexibility to state and local governments to plan and design systems for their jurisdictions.
The workforce development legislation calls for a wide range of services including job search, information, placement and education. States are required to establish one-stop career systems that provide assessment, counseling and labor market information. Job search and referral services are also required.
The legislation requires states to develop information systems to provide assistance to applicants with career decisions, employers with employment decisions, and state and local agencies with strategic and program planning.
This information system is part of a national system among the states. Some states, such as Texas and Wisconsin, have already enacted workforce development legislation. Thirty-three states have developed one-stop career centers.
WELFARE REQUIREMENTS
* Electronic Benefits Transfer: Requires states to implement EBT no later than 2002; exempts states from Regulation E of the Electronic Fund Transfer Act (holds card issuer liable for benefits when a card is lost or stolen); eliminates provision in current law requiring EBT cost neutrality "in any one year"; requires that states ensure security of benefits through the use of PINs (personal identification numbers) or optional photographs of all household members on EBT cards; requires that systems be able to differentiate between allowable food and items that are not allowed to be purchased with food stamps, i.e., scanning devices programmed to identify those items, "to the extent practicable."
* Welfare: Health and Human Services must report on the status of automated systems operated by states; states must be able to track participants and be able to cross-check between states.
* Child Support: States must establish a statewide child support case registry. This registry must include each support order issued on/after Oct. 1, 1988 and must be able to exchange information with other state and federal databases by Oct. 1, 1998.
States must establish an automated directory of new hires, with automatic comparisons of Social Security numbers by Oct. 1, 1997. States must have automated systems that assist and facilitate collection and disbursement of child support payments by Oct. 1, 1998. States must develop and operate a data-match system to provide information on non-custodial parents.
The federal government is also required to establish a federal case registry of child support orders as well as a national directory of new hires.
Thanks to Kelly Thompson of the American Public Welfare Association for material used in the preparation of this summary.
Milford H. Sprecher is vice president of State and Local Government Services, Federal Sources Inc.
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March Table of Contents
